Saturday, August 18, 2007

Benthic invertebrates revisited

This coming Tuesday, August 21, the Riverdale team will be participating in another session of benthic macroinvertebrates (aquatic) testing in the sanctuary pond. This is a monitoring study which involves taking samples from the pond and collecting insects from these samples. The benthic zone is the lowest level of a body of water. It is inhabited by organisms that live in close relationship with the ground, called benthos or benthic organisms.

Once again, we will work with members of Citizens' Environmental Watch, a community-based ecological group which organizes monitoring and stewardship programs. They use benthic invertebrates or "water bugs" as biological indicators to assess water quality. In order to collect these samples, we will have to get into the pond wearing hip waders and using nets to try to pick up as many "bugs" as possible.Volunteers collecting specimensLooking for signs of life